The number of personnel employed in the Isle of Man public service grew by 410 people to a total of 7,935 people in the five years to August 2021, according to a new analysis of government records by the Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance. During the same period, the government’s estimation of the total number of people employed on the Isle of Man (including both public and private sector jobs) dropped by 1699, implying a reduction of around 2,100 people employed in the private sector.
The data show that during the life of the last Tynwald, the actual number of people employed by the Isle of Man Government increased by an average of 1.3% each year, for a cumulative increase of 5.45% more people employed in the public sector from 2016-16 to 2020-21.
| Year (Sep-Aug) | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
| Number of people employed in public sector | 7,525 | 7,628 | 7,731 | 7,786 | 7,935 |
| Annual increase | N/A | 1.37% | 1.35% | 0.71% | 1.91% |
| Cumulative increase | N/A | 1.37% | 2.74% | 3.47% | 5.45% |
Public sector jobs grow while private sector jobs disappear
At the same time as the Manx public service has been growing quickly, the total number of people employed in the Isle of Man has been dropping. The Economic Affairs division reports that in September 2016, there was a total of 36,292 people employed in the Isle of Man, which dropped to 34,593 people in September 2020. Those numbers represent the total number of people employed in the Isle of Man, across both the public and private sectors.
After removing the actual number of personnel employed in the public sector, the estimated number of people employed in the private sector fell from 28,767 in 2016-17 to 26,658 in 2020-21.
Source Documents
Note: The written answer from the Chief Minister appears to have an error: The cost column for “Sep 2020 to Aug 2021” does not add up to the total provided. We have written to the Chief Minister to understand the cause of this £180,000 discrepancy.
The full ‘Isle of Man in Numbers‘ document can be downloaded from the Isle of Man Government website. The Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance has highlighted the relevant numbers here for ease of reference.